κέντρον

κέντρον — kéntron

κέντρον, κέντρου, τό (κεντέω to prick);

1. a sting, as that of bees (4Ma 14:19), scorpions, locusts, Rev 9:10. Since animals wound by their sting and even cause death, Paul in 1Co 15:55 (after Hos 13:14, the Sept.) attributes to death, personified, a κέντρον, i. e. a deadly weapon, and that κέντρον is said to be ἡ ἁμαρτία (56), because sin is death's cause and punishment (?) (Rom 5:12).

2. as in the Greek writings an iron goad, for urging on oxen, horses and other beasts of burden; hence, the proverb πρός κέντρα λακτίζειν, to kick against the goad, i. e. to offer vain and perilous or ruinous resistance: Act 9:5 Rec.;; cf. Pindar Pythagoras 2, 173; Aeschylus (Ag. 1624, cf.) Prom. 323; Euripides, Bacch. 795; Terent. Phorm. 1, 2, 28; Ammian. 18, 5.